


Childhood Hero

by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel



Series: Secret Superwoman [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012), Thor (2011)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-12
Updated: 2014-04-12
Packaged: 2018-01-19 02:10:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1451551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel/pseuds/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is totally a legitimate reason for Darcy to have a bunch of Captain America merchandise at the bottom of her closet, is what she’s saying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Childhood Hero

The thing is, Darcy’s childhood obsession with Superman lasted exactly as long as it took for her to discover Captain America.

Sure, she had a lot more in common with Superman, who was an alien and could fly in addition to being super-strong, just like her, but on the other hand Captain America was a _real person,_ and a heroic one at that. Without him terrible people would have done terrible things, but Captain America had devoted years of his life to fighting Nazis and doing his best to stop the atrocities they were committing, and Darcy could respect that. He’d even given his life in the process, which at nine years old was the bravest act Darcy could imagine.

So, for a while, Darcy was Captain America-mad. She had action figures, and comic books, as well as more scholarly publications. She even had her own Captain America costume, and wore it at every opportunity, which is why Darcy’s parents have like a gazillion photos of a tiny dark-haired girl in a red, white and blue outfit and holding a flimsy plastic shield, striking a heroic pose.

There is totally a legitimate reason for Darcy to have a bunch of Captain America merchandise at the bottom of her closet, is what she’s saying.

“I think the more important question here is why you were looking through my closet in the first place,” she tells Steve.

Steve blushes a bit, but says patiently, “I was looking for a blanket, remember? You said you were cold and wanted one.”

“And my Captain America stuff was under it,” Darcy realises. She keeps the Captain America stuff in a large transparent, plastic storage container at the bottom of her closet, along with the remaining Superman merchandise, because there isn’t much room anywhere else to store it, not in her tiny apartment. She’s planning on moving into Avengers’ Tower as soon as her lease runs out, since Steve asked her a couple of weeks ago, so pretty soon she’ll have more space than she’ll know what to do with, but in the meantime the lack of space is annoying.

“I’ve got to say, you looked pretty swell dressed up like that,” Steve muses, looking down at the photo of nine year old Darcy in costume as Captain America. There’s a slight smirk pulling at the corners of his mouth, and Darcy gently socks him in the arm, knowing that he’ll barely feel it.

“Shut up,” she tells him. “I was nine. People are allowed to make questionable fashion choices at nine years old. Considering that you’re a grown-ass man who still chooses to wear that exact costume, you have zero room to comment on my childhood choices.”

Steve just grins, because now they’ve known each other a while he’s lost his most of his awkwardness, and instead of acting all adorkable all the time he’s surprisingly full of sass. Nothing in Darcy’s childhood prepared her for a Captain America who’s sassy. On his good days, Steve can even keep up with Tony, who is the ultimate sass-meister.

“You like the costume,” he says knowingly, which is true, but whatever. Darcy looks down into the open container, at the collection of Captain America and Superman stuff she lovingly collected as a kid and teenager. She hasn’t gone through it in a long time, but somehow, through moving into a college dorm into a shitty apartment and then to Nowhere, New Mexico for once hectic summer and then into another, much better apartment in New York, and then to Tromso and back to New York again, the container of stuff has stayed with her. It’s not like Darcy actually needs a box full of comic books and action figures and the signed copy of Gabriel Jones’ 1993 memoir that Darcy bought on eBay, but on the really bad days, Darcy used to take them all out of the box and look at them, as a kind of anchor to what was important.

Fortunately, Darcy hasn’t had a really bad day in years.

She puts aside the action figures and the comics, and pulls out Gabriel Jones’ memoir.

“So, you might want to take a look at this sometime,” she says quietly, and hands it to Steve.

Steve looks down, eyes bright with curiosity, and then his expression shutters as he sees what he’s looking at.

“It’s signed,” Darcy says helpfully. “Not to me, or anything, I just bought it off eBay for a ridonkulous price, but yeah. Signed. It’s… he makes it pretty clear that he admired you a lot. He also writes about his life after the war, with a covert agency he refuses to name but which is pretty clearly SHIELD, so… if you want to read it, you’re welcome to borrow it.”

Steve handles the book carefully, like it might explode or something. His feelings are written all over his face, the way they usually are.

“But you don’t have to,” Darcy adds. “It’s up to you.”

“Why do you have it?” Steve’s voice comes out a little hoarse. “Why…” He looks around at all the Captain America memorabilia like it baffles him.

“I was a weird kid with superpowers,” Darcy explains kindly. “I needed someone to look up to. You made a pretty good hero.”

Steve makes a face like her words pain him, and Darcy pats his arm.

“I know you think you’re far from perfect, and yeah, that’s true, but you’re a good guy, Steve, and I am totally proud to have had a role model like you. Even if it’s kind of awkward now I’m dating you.”

Steve gives a small laugh, expression lightening, and he gently puts Gabriel Jones’ memoir aside.

“I’m not sure how I feel about being in the same company as Superman,” he says, looking down at the collected Superman merchandise.

“I’m not sure how I feel about being on the same team as Tony Stark, but it’s still a thing,” Darcy retorts, and Steve chuckles. “But both of you are about truth and justice and stuff, so you know, there’s similarities.”

“I used to listen to the radio plays, you know,” says Steve. “ _The Adventures of Superman_. It was pretty good. Bucky had a crystal set he’d put together himself, and we used to listen to it in the evenings. The sound wasn’t real good, but only the rich had the fancy store-bought radios. Everyone else made do with crystal sets, like us. But I used to think, sometimes, that the radio plays made things seem simple, when life was pretty complicated.”

“That comforts some people,” Darcy says.

“Maybe,” says Steve, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. “But I think it makes things less true.”

“You are too good to be real,” says Darcy, but not without affection. “Okay, Mr Earnest. Can we put my stuff away, now?”

“Sure,” says Steve. He helps Darcy put everything back in the storage container, but just as Darcy is bending down to put the container back in the closet he says casually,

“Say, you ever dress up in that Captain America costume nowadays?”

Darcy quickly straightens, and sees the glint in Steve’s eyes and the smirk at the corner of his mouth. She narrows her eyes.

“Don’t be an asshole,” she tells him, and asks, “Why? You _interested?_ ”

And Steve grins, but also blushes, and Darcy gives him her own wicked grin.

“Maybe on special occasions,” she purrs, and laughs as Steve turns bright scarlet.

Steve might have sass, but Darcy still wins every time.

 

 


End file.
